You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning—or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure. The “board” is the instrument, not the method. You are not being boarded. You are being watered.

He mentions the SERE school (Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion) and how some of the members of the team that put him through the waterboarding experience were trained in it. I was an OPFOR (opposing forces) team member for a SERE school in Germany back in the 1990s.

My role was mostly in the Evasion part as the one the "students" needed to evade. We caught every single one (some more easily than others), but it was the Resistance part that really put those guys through hell. I chased these guys for days on the Bavarian countryside just before winter, so there were some freezing temperatures at night and snow here and there. Lots of cold, wet weather. Some of the guys we caught were suffering early stages of hypothermia, so they were glad to get caught (they had a river crossing to accomplish). My team caught up to a Brit and a Dane just as one of them was starting to have some serious problems with his feet.

I met up with the Brit for beer after the course was done and he said he would have taken the cold wet Evasion over the Resistance stage any day. This part took place in a basement and we were racked in the attic of the barracks which had four floors. Even still, we could occasionally hear the noise of the speakers playing shrill sirens, tones, and crying babies. They had to go through the waterboarding and other tortures in order to learn techniques to deal with that sort of thing in the event of capture.

It would seem that someone thought it might be useful to employ as a torture on our own enemies.

Achilles

04-24-2009 12:44 PM

Update:

Apparently, someone forgot to forward this to Sean Hannity. Mr. Hannity agreed on public television to undergo the procedure. Keith Olbermann (of MSNBC fame) has offered to donate $1,000 to charity for every second that Hannity lasts.

I have to admit that I'm a little shocked at the difference between the professional set up that Hitchens had and the "hey my wife's cousin Joe is gonna waterboard me" set up that this guy went with.

P.S. Keith Olbermann donated $10k to charity for this.

Kurgan

05-24-2009 03:14 PM

I was convinced this was torture from the start, but these demonstrations should remove any doubt. Congrats to the talking heads with guts enough to try it (and have their minds changed).

Tommycat

05-24-2009 07:39 PM

Yeah, it's torture, though a relatively mild torture. I've been through it. And to be honest, I'd rather take being whipped to Waterboarding. But there are much worse techniques out there and being used by others against us.

I hate how everyone frames the opponents to calling this torture as all republicans... Quite frankly McCain stands out as a pretty vocal Republican that opposed waterboarding. Of course he did have both his shoulder blades broken and witness first hand VC torture techniques.

Achilles

05-25-2009 09:04 AM

Who Would Republican Jesus Waterboard???

Quote:

Title: Misinterpreting the Christian Response

Many “alleged” Christians fail to see typical Christian responses to evil in the world. In the haste to stop the killing of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, thousands of Christians signed up to go and fight. But closely scrutinize who says Christians stood back and watched in silence.

Few mention Pope Pius XXII’s secret actions to transport as many Christians as possible out of Nazi Germany, or the hundreds of Catholics that worked tirelessly to save as many Jews and Christians from death camps, or even Saint Maximilian Kolbe who traded his life for a citizen incarcerated in a death camp.

Those “kangaroo” Christians seem to forget who came up with the Emancipation Proclamation (Lincoln{Christian}), or a Congress of mostly Christian Republicans who passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution—mainstays for all Blacks today. The writer remembers Catholic Archbishop Joseph Rummel excommunicating three segregationists (1962) for refusing to integrate church schools in Louisiana.

Starting in 1981, the perfect solution was devised for the oncoming crisis of HIV/AIDS, much of which was transpiring in the Black community. A Nobel laureate couldn’t have come up with a better solution—total fidelity in marriage, and no sex with anyone but your marriage partner. Many ignore that advice.

Shockingly, many have molded “enhanced interrogation techniques” with “torture”. There’s a huge difference–as well as a major definition variance–they don’t want to talk about.

Torture involves extreme physical pain or even death, such as the cutting off of appendages, gouging of eyes, use of shredders to the body, electrical shock—you name it. Blood is usually involved.

But water boarding, only done on 3 prisoners in the US, is probably the most “enhanced” of the techniques. Because of the conditions of the test, there was no pain, no blood, no death—only fear. As a result, hundreds maybe thousands, were saved from certain death from terrorists during the “Second Wave”–an assault intended for a high rise on the West Coast, but thwarted by the information gained from water boarding those three terrorists.

Interestingly, all three terrorists are walking around today with their digits intact, tongues attached, and none the worse physically or mentally.

It’s likely even Jesus would have OK’d water boarding if it would have saved his Mom. He would’ve done the same to save his Dad, or any one of His disciples. For that matter, He even died to save all humans.

It’s obvious He would not be happy with those who voted for the candidate who kills because it’s above his “pay grade” to know if they’re alive. Checking the Commandments, killing innocents is against the 5th. Because pro-aborts don’t know for sure life does not exist at conception, they are still willing to risk that it’s not killing.

Wow, Achilles, that's one serious dose of strange you dragged in today. Let me address the relevant paragraph only so as not to derail the thread.

Quote:

It’s likely even Jesus would have OK’d water boarding if it would have saved his Mom. He would’ve done the same to save his Dad, or any one of His disciples. For that matter, He even died to save all humans.

It’s obvious He would not be happy with those who voted for the candidate who kills because it’s above his “pay grade” to know if they’re alive. Checking the Commandments, killing innocents is against the 5th. Because pro-aborts don’t know for sure life does not exist at conception, they are still willing to risk that it’s not killing.

I'm again reminded of the absurdity of valuing a zygote higher than a living, breathing person. As for Jesus torturing, I present you with this passage, right from the horse's mouth:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew

You have heard how it was said "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you: offer no resistance to the evildoer. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well.

A far cry from the torture-approving war mongers who proclaim themselves 'Christian' today.

EDIT: what on earth did the first half of his essay have to do with the second half? Not to mention the abortion notice which came out of nowhere.

Achilles

05-25-2009 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dagobahn Eagle
(Post 2627388)

EDIT: what on earth did the first half of his essay have to do with the second half? Not to mention the abortion notice which came out of nowhere.

I certainly hope that this is rhetorical. I make no claim to being able to comprehend this mindset, let alone translate it for others ;)